Mark Felt, the secret informant ”Deep Throat” in the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of president Richard Nixon in 1974, has died, the Washington Post said on Friday. He was 95.
The ”most famous anonymous source in American history” died in his sleep on Thursday at a California hospice, reported Bob Woodward, one of the two Post journalists who exposed the Watergate affair.
Felt was associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he began helping the reporters. After revealing his identity in 2005, he said he never considered himself a hero, but was just ”trying to help”.
His daughter Joan Felt said Felt had big breakfast before saying he was tired, and went to sleep, reported the Post.
”He slipped away,” she said.
Felt was in poor health when he revealed he was the shadowy informant of late-night meetings in dark garages made famous in the book and movie All the President’s Men.
He kept his role secret for 33 years, not even telling his family.
It was with Felt’s crucial input that Woodward and Carl Bernstein could write a series of investigative scoops about the Nixon administration’s involvement in the June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in the US capital.
The scandal — including the White House’s attempts at cover-up — ultimately led to Nixon becoming the first US president to resign in disgrace in August 1974. — AFP
